Renewable Power Capital (RPC) and Greenfield have received planning permission for their second battery energy storage system (BESS) in Great Britain.
The 40MW BESS will be situated in Tredington, Warwickshire, and will connect to the distribution network. It comes after the companies, under a partnership agreement, secured planning permission for a separate 22.8MW BESS project, called Steventon.
Both of the projects were designed under a commitment to improve the natural habitat at the sites. At Tredington, an increase of 21.33% for area habitat units and 191.51% in hedgerow units is proposed and Steventon will see a biodiversity net gain of 30.73% habitat units and 62.36% hedgerow units.
Construction of both projects is expected to last for between six and 12 months. RPC, which is headquartered in London, acquired both BESS projects from Greenfield in May 2023, when the two signed a development agreement. The companies aim to progress 500MW of battery storage projects to the ready-to-build stage.
RPC was launched by the Canada Pension Plan Investments (CPP Investments), a state-owned pension investment fund, in December 2020.
At the time of the partnership announcement, no details were given about the Tredington or Steventon BESS. It followed RPC’s first move into the UK market through a joint venture with battery storage firm Eelpower. Soon after partnering with Greenfield, RPC signed into another joint venture with Spanish-based renewable energy company Elmya Energy.
Kevin Devlin, CEO at RPC, said receiving planning permission was a “real milestone” for the company, having only been active in the GB storage market since last year. He added that the government’s Clean Power 2030 plan has been a “positive signal” to investors and that the company sees “huge growth potential for energy storage” in Great Britain.
RES Alness BESS gets go ahead
In similar news, renewable energy company RES’ 45MW BESS near Alness substation in Scotland has also been consented.
RES says it has developed over 830MW of energy storage projects across the UK and Ireland. At the very top of this year, it submitted a planning application for a 100MW BESS to the Fermanagh and Omagh District Council in Country Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
The Alness facility is the second project from RES to progress this week, after the company opened a second round of consultation for a solar plus storage development pegged for Nottinghamshire. RES has a grid connection agreement for up to 600MW of combined solar and battery energy storage, but the distribution between solar and associated battery components has not been finalised.
